I'm not one of those people who thinks that the hassle of buying Christmas gifts for your friends and family takes away from the spirit of the season. Actually, I kind of feel like that is a cop out for people who are too selfish to do something nice during Christmas for people that have meant something to them....but hey, don't want to be too accusational...

I think that as far as gift-giving, any old expression of thanks is a gift. The tradition has been shopping for the perfect gift, wrapping it, and posting "do not open until Xmas." But what's wrong with maybe doing a little yard work for someone, maybe take them out for lunch/dinner, or just sending a personalized Christmas card? I guess half the people out there don't think these are sufficient gifts to give, and the other half thinks it's not enough to receive.

I don't have anything else to say on that, but I guess it can be astounding to think about the ins and outs of gift giving.

Personally, I always love Christmas time....I like decking the halls, getting together with people, going out and just enjoying the season. The malls can be absolutely unmanageable, but it's still nice to be out in it once or twice and just take it all in. It is strange to think that it is already Christmas again, but then, life has been moving this fast ever since I graduated from college. I'm getting used to it.

In other news, Hilary and I have been house hunting for a while, and we found a home that we're happy with. We just started going through the contract/negotiation process, so I guess we'll see how everything goes! If it works out, we'll be moving out of here at the end of January. If it doesn't work out, we'll find another house. I think it's safe for me to say that I don't really enjoy the home buying process much, but I do enjoy the thought of having more room to live, being in a nice neighborhood, and owning a good investment. That makes all the headache worthwhile. I think I've been handling it pretty well so far.

Man, is it SERIOUSLY December 22nd? I know I already said I can't believe it's almost Christmas, but really....hard to believe.

And its been over a YEAR since SCAP played our last show. Not that we haven't tried to get a couple more shows in here and there, but it's very hard, what with everybody's schedules conflicting and the distance between everybody. Some people may ask "well why don't you just call it quits?" Good question, I'll take that one...basically, we'd probably still hang out and practice every now and then, and play a show when we could, so we wouldn't be really splitting up, and it would be like telling everyone "come see our last show!" only to have another last show...or maybe two or three more. I think we'll probably always "be" a band, even if a year goes by without people seeing us play. Well put, Christian.

Okay, everyone have a merry Christmas if I don't hit this page up again until after its over. Hope everyone was a good little boy or girl this year, or Santa's bringin' you a whoopin'.

Glory, Glory to Mike Adams!

I know what you're (probably) thinking, and no, it's not THAT Mike Adams. This Mike Adams is professor at UNC Wilmington (in North Carolina...of course). He has a recommendation as to which college deserves your money when you're ready to ship the kids off.

Had a good time in North Carolina this weekend at a wedding. Drove up Friday morning/afternoon. The weather was awesome, and fall was in full swing. Wish I'd taken some pics of the trees, but we were movin' along pretty quickly. Took some back roads through hills and mountains, and it looked awesome. Enough said.

The wedding was great too, and a big congrats to Jennifer and Dan. Hope y'all are enjoying, or did enjoy your honeymoon!

Thanksgiving isn't exactly one of my fav holidays, but it is nice to eat food and see family. It'll be fun no matter what, eh?

Gonna go see the DAWGS swat the NATS (North Avenue Trade School, or the more familiar Georgia Tech) this weekend in Athens. Talk about a mismatch, you'd think Georgia Tech would just stop showing up. Hahaha

Cool, let's all watch more TV!

Happy Birthday to me!

Yep, I guess I feel my age now....no, wait, I feel about half my age. Either way, today's the day I get to be born all over again...no, that's not right, cake and candles, there you go.

I think I'm allowed a certain amount of gibberish on my birthday, so that's it. I got it out of the ol' system, so we can all move forward! Hooray!

I haven't posted in a week or two, not that there isn't anything to say, but I've been doing other things besides blogging. I voted in the general election, ate dinner a handful of times, hung out with some friends and worked on some video stuff.

One thing I want to say though...Yasser Arafat. The guy spent a good part of his life harming other people, and I can't say I'm upset to see such a brutal person biting the dust, but at the same time, there's something real sad about a guy dying who has nothing to remember him by except for death, exploitation and lies. That's what this guy's going to be remembered for by most of the world. Personally, I'm curious what event or series of events caused this downhill slide in his life, if for maybe no other reason than to just know what to tell my future kids NOT to do. Yeah, it's sad in a certain way, but in the same respect, a lot of people's lives may have been spared in the passing of Yasser Arafat.

Tonight will be dinner with my wife, and tomorrow is cooking out with my family. Gonna watch the UGA vs. Auburn game with my family tomorrow afternoon. Seriously, I think UGA has a good chance at knocking the War Eagles, er, Tigers, er...whatever they call themselves now...well, UGA has a good chancing of ending their winning streak. We'll see, now won't we? Can't wait!

AWESOME!

Georgia Bulldawgs beat the Floriduh Gators into submission this weekend. Now that's bragging rights for a year (at least) and I'm taking it.

Had a great time over the weekend, I'll post some pics real soon.

Today Hilary and I voted. Afterwards, we went to Bruster's for ice cream (free scoop for voters...nice). Gonna get some Papa John's pizza in a bit, as they are also having deals for the election day.

Hilarious, that's all I can say...go to Mike's page here and check out the "vote or die" post on there, along with the comments for that post. I've been laughing about that all day long. All day.

Oh, and make sure to vote, or you just might cease to exist.

"Only 7 more days until the recount!"

That came off of The Onion for this week. So true...

Really though, all of this advanced voting has pointed to signs of huge voter turnout for this election. The experts say that means a Democratic success. See, the key to Democratic success is generally a form of brainwashing, where people with otherwise unused brain power have that space filled with "vote or die" nonsense, and then topped off with "vote for Kerry" nonsense. That's how they win - they get the people who don't vote/don't want to vote/don't know what to vote for crowd to show up, and they vote based on TV. Should be a good time...

This weekend is the GA/FL game in J'ville, FL. I'm going down to Sea Island tomorrow morning with my Dad and grandpa. We spend a couple days down there, then go down for the game, and then come crawling back on Saturday night only to have to get up and leave paradise on Sunday. Seriously though, it's a lot of fun, even though we generally lose, and the fact that we were able to go at all is pretty cool. This year looks....different....for the Dawgs. Florida has no "coach" now, and they look like a truly terrible team. But, regardless, Florida has looked bad before and still beaten UGA. The game is a rivalry, so the name of the game changes, and records mean nothing. Georgia has often had a better team of players and still lost. But we still lead the overall series. See, there's the upbeat side of it! I think we've got 'em this year. My Dad has predicted UGA, 30-14. Try to spot us on TV.

I should probably go to work now.

You know, sometimes people just make things up, out of thin air, just to mislead folks...for the sake of clarity, we'll refer to it from this point forward as "lying."

I get a newsletter from The Career News every now and then. I think I must have signed up for this a few years ago at UGA, no clue really, but that's another story. This week's letter contained the following information:

"Wanting a job but not actively looking takes a person out of the unemployment rate calculation. In response to recurring questions about the unemployment rate, the Labor Department has created other indicators that paint a fuller portrait of the employment market. One of those measures, sometimes called an underemployment rate, adds two groups to those officially deemed unemployed:

• 'Marginally attached' workers, the Labor Department's term for people who have personal issues that interfere with the search, including discouraged jobseekers;
  
• People working part time because they couldn't find full-time jobs or had scaled-back hours.
  

In August, when the official unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 5.4 percent, this alternative index remained at 9.5 percent -- right where it had been the previous month. Sylvia Allegretto, an economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute in Washington, said this underemployment rate more accurately reflects the weakness in the job market."

Discouraged job seekers? Discouraged? Since when is that an excuse for not getting a job? Since when is that an excuse for anything? Seriously, deal with your feelings, then get a job. Man, it is so easy for any of us to blame our problems on someone else. People like this Economic Policy Institute and other masters of political correctness only make it easier for people to point that finger somewhere else besides themselves.

But seriously, the worst one of those two points is that they actually count people working part-time as UNEMPLOYED. That includes (though unfortunately not detailed in this document) people aged 18-22, people who, traditionally, either have NO job, or a part-time job - which, as it turns out, also means "unemployed." Does anyone else think it's strange that they can refer to anyone who is EMPLOYED as part of the UNEMPLOYMENT figures? The folks putting this out are either 1) ignorant, 2) illiterate or 3) flat-out lying to us.

Look folks, I understand that personal issues do prevent people from getting the job they want or getting a job at all, and I certainly hope that they get a good job sooner rather than later...but if you have a job, you're NOT unemployed, simply by definition.

Additionally, how is it that "wanting a job" but not having a job counts you as employed? And how do you know anyway? I guess you just take their word for it. I don't know, I guess it's somewhat reasonable, but it sure doesn't make sense.
For people who NEED a job, here's the short of it: if you have no job, then your job is to FIND a job. I sure think that's fair to assume.

...and now it's starting to get cold.

Seriously? I barely remember it being summer. Happened a little too fast. Maybe I should get a job as a teacher, where summer shows up just like you remember it as a kid. Sweet.

Watched "The Day After Tomorrow" this weekend. It was fun to watch, but it stretched the imagination just a little too far. And I could really have done without the strained father-son relationship and ridiculous love story. But man, it's neat to see the destruction. That's all I'll say.

Having problems with my new router. It's a nice one, wireless-g, 108mbps. I'm having problems, however, ACCESSING MY OWN WEBSITE. I really don't get it. The SCAP site, my site, Mike's site and some other sites are all hosted on the same server, so none of them work. And, try as I might, I haven't been able to find a SINGLE other website out there that DOESN'T work besides the ones I just listed. Very convenient, eh? In all honesty, there are other sites that I cannot ping, but I can browse to them, making <0 sense. Well, obviously it does make sense, or it wouldn't happen, but I just need to figure it out. Mike's been helping, but the Support Hotline of Indian Technicians hasn't helped at all, and forums have turned up nothing thus far. I'm sure there will be a big celebration when I get it all fixed, so I'll let you guys know.

A moment of silence please..............thank you. Yes, last night, I made a DVD of the slide show FROM MY WEDDING. Long time in the making, my friends. This was just a test for my sake, to make sure that I got all the DVD features set up correctly with my new Encore DVD program, and to check player compatibilty for the DVD-R media. Mostly good results, but there were some functions that I didn't set correctly. No problems with playback at all, looked very good. One image needed to be deinterlaced.

I'm thinking it's time for all the "undecideds" to decide. One prominent talk show host has proposed that undecideds shouldn't be allowed to vote if they haven't made their mind up by now. To me that's just words for the sake of words. If they haven't made their minds up by now, THEY STILL HAVE TWO WEEKS TO DECIDE. Now, if they haven't decided by the time they step into the box, then maybe they shouldn't vote, I'll buy that. But for now, hey, the election day is November 2nd, so in my opinion, and that of the federal and state governments, people have until 7:00pm on November 2nd to make up their mind about the president and his challenger.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, so no updates...until now.

First off, want to draw attention to the comments on my post about the voting rights, where people were talking about testing people before allowing them to vote. My sister posted a comment that made a lot of sense to me...yeah, basically, we COULD test people for basic literacy and political knowledge, but the criteria would be decided by whoever was in office, so it would probably change every 2 or 4 years. Additionally, it would probably require another "test" in high schools and preparation courses to get the kids ready to vote. Honestly, if we're running out of room in school for the arts and sports, then it's not time to start adding more requirements. Good call on that one.

Now, there's been a couple of debates in the last couple of weeks, along with speculation about who brought what onstage with them....this is just getting ridiculous. They call the debates a "draw" for the most part, even though each side maintains victory. I think the least important but most interesting has been the VP debate. Interesting because we don't get to hear much from these people (relatively), and interesting because it doesn't really matter. They become mouthpieces for their candidates for the most part, and NOBODY votes for a vice president. People vote for the #1 guy. Sure, a VP candidate can help/hurt a little, but we're not even talking about a single point increase in the polls.

Tonight is another presidential debate, this one concerning mostly domestic issues. Many people say that Bush has spent the last 4 years spending money in ways it ought not be spent (a big one people mention is, of course, Homeland Security programs). I agree that Bush has made some strange decisions with taxpayer money. As of this year, I am one of those elite that have actually paid taxes. I think it'd be more than appropriate to scale back domestic spending, and the candidate who will make that point will have an edge. Of course, more substance is necessary...which programs will be cut back, and which will be reinforced with taxpayer funds? If we can ditch a lot of the handouts, all the better. If we start spending more on getting healthcare for all americans...well, explain 1) how we can afford that, 2) why it would be better to socialize medicine than simply repair the current situation and 3) where the constitution makes provisions for domestic healthcare on a personal scale. I have my opinions, and I've done my research, so I already realize a lot of the mistakes in this type of spending...I also know which candidate has been talking so much lately about how a social medical program is in his plan.

Taxes...one candidate has promised to raise taxes significantly. The candidate that raises taxes should realize that most of the people who vote fall into the group known as "taxpayers," and that most of them benefitted from the recent tax cuts...and they were all happy about it. Why would they vote for a tax increase? Just a thought. One of the candidates has given significant face time to a few tax plans that would eliminate income taxes altogether, with various means of acheiving this while still paying for current obligations and also lowering the deficit. I'd be interested in trying something like that...

So, there's some things to think about. I should probably mention some football stuff too...I went to see UGA stomp LSU a couple of weeks ago. Seriously, best sporting event I've ever attended. The atmosphere was unbeatable - the entire stadium was on their feet screaming for the whole 3 1/2 hours of the game. Awesome, just awesome...and then...Tennessee tore UGA a new one last weekend. That has to be the biggest full reverse I've ever seen in a one-week period. My opinion? Tennessee got destroyed the week before by Auburn, losing by a large margin of points. At the same time, UGA beat LSU by a WAY large margin. Tennessee comes to UGA ready to make a statement, and UGA comes in feeling unbeatable. Simply put, Tennessee wanted it badly against a big opponent, and UGA didn't worry about it till it was too late - sometime in the 4th quarter. Now we get to play out our hearts against...Vanderbilt? Ahhhh....well, I just hope we don't take them for granted, because seriously, if UGA lost to Vandy, that would end the season. On the bright side, I bet Vandy would start getting financial donations from alumni again ;)

I'm reinstalling the OS on Hilary's computer, adding some anti-virus software, and (finally) hooking it up to the broadband here. Now we can sit next to each other and send instant messages. I'm so ready.

Congratulations to Andy and Abby Garland!

Yep, my friend Andy made the jump into wedlock this past Saturday. He and his new wife Abby are hopefully enjoying some kind of honeymoon this week. I say it that way because, well...last I heard, their flight into Florida was cancelled due to the hurricane. So, hopefully that didn't stop them from going somewhere. Honestly, I'm worried for them - what if they don't get back in time for the UGA vs. LSU game this Saturday?

Oh, you think I'm joking? Well, then you're obviously not a UGA fan. Seriously, Abby's garter was red with little "G's" all around it. They're gonna be at that game, my money's on it (ha! not really!).

Anyways, yeah, it was a really nice wedding. Eric and I did the videography, and as a result we have about 8 tapes to put into the edit, averaging about 35 minutes of material per tape. Let's see, that would be about 4 hours and 20 minutes? Yep, sounds good. Three of those tapes will be edited together though (the ceremony had 3 cameras set up), so that will cut about 1 hour of material completely out.

Send the newlyweds a little e-mail to congratulate them on their new life together, or post something on the comments, or if you know them better...well, then you probably already told them, eh?

As an added note, happy birthday to my blog! I've had this thang up here for a year now, packin' it full of things that I'm certain the world needs to know...things like, "what I did this weekend" or "politicians are dirty." Good times.

Okay, let me lay out some ground rules...

Everyone should know that I have full control over what is or what is not posted on my page, either by myself or others. With that said, everyone should feel free to respond to my posts however you like. Seriously. I welcome any kind of discussion. While I will allow absolute ignorance and minor levels of dead-end propoganda, I don't much care for some 4-letter words on the page (no, that doesn't mean "love" or "hugs"). So, if you want to post gibberish, rantings, whatever...not a problem. Just keep it PG-13 or lower, or you will probably get deleted. If I have to delete you twice, you get banned.

F.A.Q. -
1. "How can you tell me what I can say? This is violation of free speech! Fascist!"
-Well, actually, this is my property, I created it, and so your rights as protected by government only extend here as far as I let them. Read it...it's actually in the Constitution. Since it is my own property, I am also responsible for maintenance, and I'm not going to let you throw your garbage on my floor if it violates my ground rules (This "question" is actually a good example of gibberish, rantings and also ignorance. Obviously, a comment like this would have no real meaning, but see, right there, I let it sit on the page nonetheless.)

2. "Who do you think you are? Mother (funny bunny)! You can't censor me, I'm a (good golly) American, you son of a (mother and father)!"
-See, that is an example of the type of censorship I might apply to posts of that nature. And if you think I have no right to censor you...well, look at the first FAQ question.

3. "(null)"
-Okay, good...that's an example of someone who I feel didn't even contribute a post worth keeping, regardless of their clear violation of the ground rules.

There are no guarantees...I mean, hey, I'm a reasonable guy. If it seems like you were trying to make a point, but you just couldn't because of all the garbage in your head, well, I might let it ride anyways. But if I think you just wanted to swear at me and all the nice people posting on my site, you're gone. Do it twice, and you're banned.

Hugs and kisses,
Christian

My friend Mike has always followed politics a little closer than I have. I just kind of took an interest in some of this stuff in the last couple years. I have Mike to partially thank for that.

Personally, I'm no Republican. I make this point clear because it seems I haven't made this point at all to some people. I only personally know a couple of people who say they are Republicans. I'm not Libertarian, Green, Independent, etc. I have no upper case affiliations. I'm just conservative. I have a set of political and social beliefs that intersect with all of the parties in some places, more often with the Libertarians and Republicans than any others, but I cannot stand by a party like you would a friend, because the parties are the source of a lot of scheming and in-fighting. Politically speaking, I'm not alone. Mike is no Republican. I have liberal friends who are not Democrats. Think of all the Democrats leaving for the Green Party in the last few years. In my opinion, I think that the Democrats and Republicans are both guilty of trying to make everyone fit into one club or the other. In a broader sense, I have discovered that liberals seem more often than not to group everyone into two groups: people who think like them, and everyone else. This is where I give the edge to conservatives. It seems to me that more conservatives than liberals are aware of the varying degrees of political interest, ideology and action. You don't see conservatives screaming at "lazy" college students for not being more involved, and getting out the vote. As an example, the right to vote is just that...a right. You can, but you don't have to. In fact, maybe you shouldn't.

Would you join in a conversation with a group of people without knowing what they were discussing? This seems to be the best analogy I can think of for this situation. People who cast a vote for the candidate that appeared the most favorably on The Daily Show, MTV, or the major news outlets, are generally uninformed. They are joining in a conversation on a subject that they hold little to no interest in, primarily because they've been told that it would be lazy not to do so. It's your right to vote...so what about other rights? How about gun ownership? That's a right, but you don't hear many (intelligent) people saying "if you don't own a gun, you're lazy." Uninformed voters ARE like uninformed gun owners...they have the power to appoint the people in charge of the guns.

People complain that not enough young people vote, or not enough black people, or not enough illegal aliens (zing!). What exactly is enough, and why DON'T they vote? Well, that's not my question to answer. Think about this though....as far as young people are concerned (we'll just say age 18 to 25), what makes us all think we're so smart? We spend most of our time avoiding news and politics (except, of course, The Daily Show). As a group, we are the most uninformed of all voters. The problem is that many people choose to phrase it differently. You'll instead hear "young people never vote." We hear a lot of "we need to get young people to the polls!" How often do you hear, "if these young uninformed voters show up, we're screwed!"? Seems to me that at all levels of politics - local all the way up to national - we don't need people joining the conversation without knowing what we're talking about.

Maybe instead of having these "get out the vote rallies" that try to get people excited about voting, we need more people to take a political science class and paying more attention to history...or more non-partisan publications aimed at people in our group. Honestly, I don't think I've EVER been "excited" about my right to vote. Do I take it for granted? Possibly...but isn't that my right?

I feel like the Democratic Party in particular tries too hard to use these get-out-the-vote events for their own sort of recruiting program. Again, they feel like you're with them or you're "everyone else." Republicans seem less interested in just getting people to the polls. It may be to their detriment, but possibly not. What about all of these uninformed voters, anyways? Who are they more likely to fall in line with? Well, with their lack of political knowledge, I'd have to go with the Democrats (zing!). So obviously, wouldn't do much good for the Republicans to get these people to the polls, now would it? (Of course, I'm just trying to get on people's nerves with that last comment...)

Hopefully I'll get some real hateful posts about Bush's Nat'l Guard service in response to this. We're waiting on you, lil' Miss Miami.

Another (almost) fall weekend, packed with great weather, good football games on TV, and....work?

Yeah, I've got so much on my plate right now, couldn't take a midday nap even if I wanted. Fine by me...I'd rather be busy than searching through employment ads.

For the last 6 months, I've been researching building my own computer. The one I currently own was cutting-edge technology two and a half years ago, but even then, it was better suited to office tasks than what I currently spend most time doing, which is audio/video applications. So, I've been looking at everything from the basics of computer construction up to the specific things that go into building an audio/video workstation. Honestly, it would be easier to go out and have someone else do the work for me rather than my attempt at re-inventing the wheel (there are tons of people who build these machines). However, my estimates so far tell me that if I build it myself, I look to save as much as $2k on the whole deal. Beyond that, it's also great, I think, to be able to know all the in's and out's of my machine, so that I become my own first contact for tech support if something goes south. So now, I know how I want to build it, and with what parts, but I'm waiting for some money to show up.

Oh, and about the football this weekend....it was crazy. UGA's game against South Carolina didn't look good until the very end. In fact, that was basically the story for all the college ball on Saturday. Every matchup seemed to be only truly decided in the fourth quarter, if not in the last 5 minutes. It pretty much started with the hurricane-delayed FSU v. Miami game, which was just nuts. If it began with that game, it sure ended with Ga. Tech's game against Clemson. Honestly, I really wanted to see Clemson win, because I knew that would make the South Carolina folks even more upset (losing to Georgia, and then their in-state rival winning their game). However, I don't recall seeing a more amazing come-from-behind victory than the one that the Jackets pulled off. I think it's the first time I actually kind of rooted for Tech. Of course, I felt very dirty afterward, but if you saw the game, you'd know what I mean.

Next weekend, UGA plays at home against Marshall. Never heard of them before this season. I do know that they gave #8 Ohio State a real scare on Saturday, just about stealing the day. Ohio State pulled off just one of the many come-from-behind victories for the day.

September 13th....I don't see how it's possible that we're already half into September, and a week out from the official start of autumn, but it is what it is.

Oh, you know, I was kind of wrapping up there, but I want to say this: I don't know what's going on with these purportedly falsified documents about Bush's service in the Nat'l Guard, but if it turns out that the falsification was either done by one of the news outlets, or that a blind eye was turned to verfication of the documents, it sure isn't going to look good for Kerry, no matter his role (or non-role) in this thing. I guess we'll see what happens.

Now this is really interesting...John Kerry with a gun that he fought to ban a year ago, but yet he is proud to own it today. Check it out. (I'm not sure how long the link will be active)

Woo! Gooooooooo Dawgs!

First football game of the year for UGA was this past Saturday. It was a home game at Sanford Stadium against Georgia Southern, a I-AA school in southeast Georgia. We didn't exactly whip Ga. So., but it was a good first game. And we won, by 20, which is nothing bad. You should've all been there, it was a great time.

This coming weekend is the UGA v. South Carolina game in Columbia, SC. I'll be catching it on TV.

I had a pretty good Labor Day weekend. My parents and younger sister and bro-in-law spent the night up at my place on Friday night (we all rode over to Athens together for tailgating and game). We went out to Steak 'n Shake for dinner, which was really good...mmmmmmmmmmmm. They came back for a little while after the game on Saturday night. On Sunday, Hilary's parents and brother came up to play tennis and have dinner. As a side note, Hilary's parents haven't played tennis in a loooooong time, but they seemed to pick it all back up quickly. They completely took us kiddies to school.

Monday was a lot of nothing. Slept in late, then went to check out the stores to see what sales were going on. Didn't really end up getting anything, just wanted to be a part. Plus, I thought it'd be nice to get out before the hurricane came.

And it came around bed time last night. I swear, I'm going to get a chain saw and trim down the tree outside my bedroom window. The winds usually cause it to brush softly against the screen window, but the winds the last few nights were just slamming the thing against the window. Right when I thought I was going to get back to sleep, the thing would start banging on the window. If I'd had a chainsaw, I do believe I would have been out there in the pouring rain and gale force winds leveling the noble pine.

Maybe not a chainsaw, but something...I'll make sure this isn't a problem later. Well, I'll probably just call maintenance.

Not much posting, eh? Well, I've been kinda busy...just kinda.

Work has been slamming me against the wall. I've just barely had a chance to come up for air. And I've been spending some other spare time learning everything with these programs. I've already got a basic understanding of how to work within this stuff, but the apps are DEEP...seems like I find something new every day. On top of that, I've been working on other stuff, and then of course, spending time with my wife. We've watched some of the Olympics, played a lot of tennis, and enjoyed the waning days of summer as best we can.

This weekend should be fun...going to Athens tomorrow night for a big 'ol party at Eric's new place with the girls (no, Eric is no pimp [zing!], these are just some friends we've known fo-eva, and let's face it, Eric is more comfortable with women [zing!] if you know what I mean [zing!]). Saturday afternoon, I'm going to a Braves game with Andy and some friends. Sort of a bachelor thing with the guys. Then, that night, I'm going to Your Favorite Town to celebrate my maternal grandfather's birthday with my family. Sunday, I'm going to help a friend out with some editing things, and then spend the rest of the day just chillin'.

In about 9 days, the Bulldogs have their first game of the season, a home game against Georgia Southern. Not a big opponent, but it is the first game and a home game, so that means FUN FUN FUN! It also means I'm headed back to Athens. I'll probably drag my guitar/amp/stuff over there to jam with Eric after the game, and spend the night too I suppose. It's a long weekend, so anything goes.

Alright kiddies, stay cool, and please, put some words in the comment box, especially you people who always read my blog and don't say anything (and you thought I didn't see all of you hanging around....mmmm-hmmmmm....). I don't even care if you trash me (because I can delete it)...just say something. I work hard for the money.

AWESOME.
That's right, awesome like you wouldn't believe. I just received Adobe's Video Collection Pro v2.5 and it is truly a modern marvel. I wouldn't even try to tell you what all of these programs can do. Not only are the base products unbelievable, but it came packaged with TONS of plug-ins (little extra programs that work within the base programs). Plug-ins usually let you do flashier effects, 3D animation, and better overall production.

I just loaded it all onto my computer last night and started playing around a little bit. It took a couple of hours to install and register the products (Adobe is intent on eliminating software piracy...noble attempt, but I doubt people are just going to stop bootlegging Photoshop anytime soon). I've got one product to work on for the weekend, plus finalizing my wedding video (I've been waiting for all this software so that I can finally finish it!) as well as editing and producing the DVDs for my sister's wedding.

So let's have a quick rundown of what's in the box:
Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 - Video editing application.
Adobe After Effects 6.5 - Motion graphics. Came with a neat 3D modeling plug-in, as well as an advanced keying plug-in.
Adobe Audition 1.5 - Audio creation/editing app. Has a lot of pitch correction, noise filtering, and overall audio sweetening controls built in, as well as a library of over 5,000 loops, effects, and other great toys.
Adobe Encore DVD 1.5 - This is one serious DVD creator. Seriously, if you've ever watched a DVD and wondered how to make all the flashy motion menus and fill the disc with extras and fun things...well, this program lets you do it all.
Adobe Photoshop CS - This is the new version of Photoshop, and you can do just about any kind of image editing and creation. Even includes an app for you to build your websites and export graphics in HTML code, ready for publishing.

Best of all, all of these programs work TOGETHER. You can be editing in Premiere Pro and jump into Audition to play with the audio or add effects (although Premiere has some really good audio handles built in, including creating Dolby 5.1 surround audio). And lets say you're working in After Effects or Premiere and you want to tweak an image...well, click on it and select "edit in Photoshop" and BLAZZAAMM! You're in Photoshop. Same for DVD menus. Encore uses all the layering effects of Photoshop to create the menus, so if you want to tweak the image, same thing...just click and select "edit in Photoshop." Additionally, if you're using content in one program that was created in another, any changes you make to the original are effected immediately in the other program. For example, if you make a flashy 3D menu in After Effects for use in Encore, as soon as you make a change in After Effects, it is immediately updated when you move back into Encore. You can even do the right click thing to immediately edit a piece in another app. So lovely.

So now that you have all read this (or more likely, skipped to this sentence, ignoring all the advertising I just laid down), you are all more educated about what this incredible piece of programming can do. And now you also know what I'll be doing with the next few years of my life ---- learning EVERYTHING that this software can do.

Now that I own this software, I'm looking into becoming an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in Digital Video and Graphics. It'll be taking me some time, but it'll all be worth it. Wish me luck.

Congratulations Mo and Gwam!

That's right....Mo and Graham got married this past weekend in Your Favorite Town (I still laugh at that, Mike). The whole event went off without a hitch...well, you know what I mean. They're on their honeymoon now, and I'm sure they're having a great time (well...you know what I mean).

It was kinda sad to see my little sis getting married. She was the youngestof the 5 of us siblings, and the last to get married. It was a real fun time for all. Thanks to Eric and Andy for helping me out with videography.

This week should be relatively relaxed. I spent so much time at work and working on my sister's slide show (shown at the wedding reception) over the last few weeks, I feel like I've had no time to myself. This week at work is somewhat busy, but the home life shouldn't be so bad. I think I might be watching Hidalgo tonight with Hil. Maybe it won't annoy her if I refer to her as Hil-dalgo during the movie. Maybe pigs fly.

My goal this week is to (finally) purchase the new Adobe Video Collection Pro 2.5. Hilary seems to be going along with it, and it is currently at DEEP DISCOUNT, so we'll see. If I don't post again for a few months, it's probably because I'm playing with my new toys. ;)

Great news folks....after about 5 visits to the Cingular store and probably over a dozen calls to their customer service, Hilary and I FINALLY got what we wanted!

We got a couple of new phones to replace our old technology, and now we're able to put our plans together as a "family plan" and save a butt-load of money. Plus, we get to call each other (and all other Cingular customers) for free. So now, since we've got more minutes than we'll need or use on our mobile plans, we're ditching our landline with Bellsouth. So stop calling our home, and start calling the cell phones. If I want you to have my mobile number, worry not, I'll call you sometime. Besides, it's the same number, so if you were gonna get it you've probably got it by now.

Finishing up this huge project at work right now. It's gonna look really good when I get the final edit together. I'm also working on my sister's (Maureen's) wedding slide show right now. I've got most of it done, should be finished with the rough cut tomorrow. The final edit will come next week after Maureen and my Mom have a chance to look over it. Just want to make sure it's all in there the way they want, and give them a last chance to add to it.

Should be a busy and exciting next few weeks!

It's been a crazy week at work. We're building a new set for a customer that wants to demonstrate the home installation of their HVAC zoning products. So, we're building a home (kind of).

On top of that, there's a never ending stream of additional work that must be completed alongside this other massive project. It's not that it's impossible, just a whole lot to do all at once.

We're actually putting together a new web page too. I built the look and feel of the page back in January, and we had a programmer go in to interface it with all the back end. It's going to work a lot better, but for some reason I don't think it'll solve all our problems. I have issues with people who think that new technology will solve their problems for them. Almost every time, the more complicated something is, the more you have to do to keep it going. Of course, new technology will do more for you, but it's not bulletproof, as some people think.

I think the weirdest thing that ever happened to me was that someone found out I knew HTML, and then assumed I knew everything there was to know about web design, programming, networking, etc...hey, I'm a simple man.

Got to hang out with Mike the other night. He hadn't seen our place since we got married, and I don't think I've seen him in 4 or 5 months. It didn't really occur to me at the time, but really, I don't know when the last time was that I saw him. Last December? Maybe. It's too bad that I can't see much of my friends anymore. Got to see Chris and Eric and some other folks on the 4th of July, which was a lot of fun. Last Friday, Andy Garland and his fiancee Abby came over for some dinner and tennis. Seems like I'm seeing more people the last couple of months. It's the season to get out, eh?

Three weddings coming up, two of them family. It's bizarre to see my little sister Maureen getting married...and to my friend Graham (we'll just call him Gwam). They're both getting excited about it all. I'm sure they'll be happy in their home over in Carrollton.

In other news, Hilary and I are going to dump our home phone line. It's just too expensive. Of course, since we're ditching that, we're gonna ditch our dial-up internet as well. We're gonna take the money we save from ditching Bellsouth and Joi internet, and apply those savings to cable TV and broadband internet. The cable is just basic, so we'll only be getting local broadcast stations (which we currently receive with an antenna). That's no problem, because 1) it's cheap, 2) we have to have a cable TV account to get the good deals on broadband internet, and 3) there's a bunch of good shows on broadcast. I don't know if I'd ever have enough time to dedicate to expanded basic or digital cable.

My big challenge coming up in the next few days: convince Cingular Wireless that I am right, they are wrong, and get what I want now, not later. Wish me luck.

Let's see, where are we here...oh yeah:

Happy 4th of July everybody! I know, I'm a couple of days late, but you know, that's how life is sometimes...a couple of days late. So drink up, me heartys, yo ho!

Just got back from vacation, and work is hitting me like a brick in the you-know-what (or you oughta know what, because I'm not going to tell you). Actually, it's not TOO bad. I just like to pretend it is, because then I have an excuse for being so lazy.

Okay, seriously, you should check out the pics section on my site here. I just added a new section for my pics from this trip I just took to St. Simons Island, GA. My family goes there every year, and this was the first year in a while that I've been able to actually go for the entire week. Oh man, it was NICE to have a week at the beach. Just plain awesome.

It was pretty crazy, what with the 20-something people who were all there, but everyone just had such a good time, and it was kinda cool to have the whole group together in one place again, just like the good ol' days.

Also, check out the pics section later today, as there will also be a section of pictures from the 4th of July weekend.

I'm still trying to come up with a better (more automated) way of getting my pics on the site so that it takes less time to do. Obviously, if it didn't take so much time to add pics to the site, I would add more, and there would be much more for everyone to look at. Anyone with any ideas, let me know in the commments below this post.

Happy 1st Anniversary!

Wow, how about that? Hilary and I have been married for a YEAR. Not that I haven't noticed how fast life is moving these days, but this past year was definitely a quick one for me. I can still remember almost all of the details of the wedding day and the whole year leading up to it.

Hilary and I did our big celebrating this past weekend since the actual anniversary is on a Monday (today). Had a great time. Went on a picnic, took Hilary to Spa Sydell, packed our bags and picked Hilary up from the spa to head down to Buckhead for the evening. We checked in at the Doubletree, hung about, and then went to dinner at Dante's Down the Hatch. Personally, I've never been there before, and I've never had fondue before, but it was everything I'd expected and then some. We had some of the recommended wines with the cheese fondue appetizer and the beef fondue meal, and had a really good cheesecake dessert alongside some strawberry daiquiris. Really awesome...we were there for almost three hours!

Woke up Sunday and grabbed some breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and then left around noon to come back home to Gwinnett for an art sale. Got us a real nice painting for the blank space on our dining room wall (which, incidentally, is no longer blank). I also got Hilary a pearl necklace and a fondue set of our own (to commemorate our anniversary). All in all, it was a great anniversary.

No more newlywedded-ness for Hilary and I...now I guess we're just an old married couple...

After this, Hilary and I are headed BACK TO THE BEACH! Going to St. Simons. Woo! Only 5 days of work separating me from the beach...

Ronald Reagan, former president of the United States of America, died this past weekend from Alzheimer's Disease. He was 93 years old.

You can go all over the Internet and find information out about this guy (just type his name into google), so I won't waste time saying what everyone else is saying. I will just sort of comment quickly how the events of the last week have made me feel. He was an incredible person, with great insight. He was one of us, an American, a patriot at heart and in practice. He wasn't a perfect man, but he certainly came closer than most I've ever known.

When I was born, Ronald Reagan had just been elected a week earlier. His election and subsequent inauguration were the most visible and important events at the beginning of my life. As a child growing up, I didn't know much about the man or his policies, his position or his opposition. I don't think I truly came to understand what he did for this nation until about a year or so ago. Even before then, however, I'd always regarded him as an impressive leader, and even added him to my mental list of people I'd like to meet one day.

Though he is gone now, I'll always feel like I knew him my whole life. And I know I'm not alone either. Millions of other people whose lives Reagan touched now mourn his passing. We've lost a great man.

I think the summer is just about completely planned out for me.

Let's see, I go to work every day, sleep every night, and on weekends, I go to a couple of wedding showers and/or actual weddings. The good news is that I'm actually "working" a couple of these weddings (I'm doing videography). There's not really any bad side to all that, except that I don't feel like I'm going to have time to just sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery.

The 1st wedding anniversary is comming up in a couple weeks...what a fast year that was! No matter...I've got plans for the anniversary, and yes fellas - I know what day it is.

I think June and July are my all-time favorite months of the year. They used to be the solid frontrunners back in the day, when I was in school and the summer meant "no school or work." Cest la vie.

HOLY END OF MAY BATMAN!

Wow, that really was a fast month. Counting down the days now to my first anniversary with my wife! I'd let you all in on a few of the things I'm planning for her, but I'm afraid you might tell her (oh, and she reads this blog).

Just got off the phone with my mom. We had a discussion that turned into an argument. Haven't done that in a while. And of course, as you all are probably aware, I was right and she was wrong. But hey, that's neither here nor there....what IS here and there is this three-day weekend that's coming up! Woo! Memorial Day!

No real plans for the weekend. Gonna sit by the pool A LOT. Gonna play tennis, yep, A LOT. Probably play a little guitar, working on the wedding DVD, sleep in, stay up late. Good times. Totally need this, too.

Everyone have a good weekend, and on Monday, take just a moment or two to look around you and realize the impact of all the men and women in the armed services, especially those who gave it all just to help make our lives a little more free, and also to help keep it that way.

More congratulations to people I know, so check it out:

My friend Julianna got engaged this weekend in Charleston, SC. Technically, you could call her my "boss" or "supervisor" or whatever, but we've gotten to be good friends since I started working at this job a year ago. Send her an e-mail telling her how happy you are for her, and ask her to show you the ring. It's real nice.

The only other congratulatory commentary is for myself. I'm celebrating a year in the "real world." I graduated last May and started working at my current job last May 21st. Feels strange that it has been a year. I guess your parents are always right when they say "time only goes faster." But for cryin' out loud, I'm only 23! If it's this bad now, what's 10 years from now going to be like?

Wrote a bass line and guitar part for a new SCAP song this weekend. I've got about 3 songs in the works that could easily be finished soon, but getting folks together is next to impossible, what with everyone's schedules. Including a couple other "new" songs, we're on our way to another album. Don't know if that will ever happen though. Costs a fair amount to record and press an album (well, if you do it the right way), and I don't think we'd ever be able to support it properly. If getting practice together is difficult, playing shows is about 10x more. Maybe we'll just do a live recording someday, and keep our cash out of the studios. I guess time will tell...

Had a blast on vacation. Good weather, good food, good company...good times. I'll be posting some pics sometime soon (no, really).

So I come back from vacation, and it appears that the host for my blog, Blogger, has gone and changed up the appearance of their service. Well, that's fine, gotta update stuff now and then, but this update is in the wrong direction if you ask me. They've made everything HUGE...the buttons, words, everything. It's like it's been redesigned for old people (no offense to old people). Prior to the redesign, the look catered more to the techie community, which until recently was the bulk of people doing blogs in the first place. As time goes on, things change. But this just seems a little bulky.

Oh well, I'm sticking with them. Blogger is owned by Google, and the support is good, and there's little chance of these guys disappearing overnight and costing me all of my posts.

This week of work has been sort of dull, but I'm sure it'll pick up soon. I'm ready to go back to the beach myself...

Great news folks...my sister Heather just had another kid yesterday! Woo! I'm an uncle again ;)

He's a boy (redundant, yes) and is doing just fine. Born today around 9am. Name's Brandon Niel (or maybe Neal) Galloway. Send her a nice e-mail to congratulate her!
And from Hilary and I...CONGRATULATIONS HEATHER!!

Tonight is the season's final episode of Smallville. Man, that is a good show. What in the world am I going to watch on TV between now and October?

Even better, the Smallville Season 2 box set is out as of yesterday. Kind of pricey, but it'll help pass time for the next few months.

Angel is having it's final episode of all time tonight. Don't care too much, never watched it. I'll watch it anyways. I like to read the last chapter of a book first and then see how it all gets there as I read.

May already....amazing.

I'm glad it's May. January and Febrary aren't exactly my fav months of the year. March and April are good because the weather is pretty mild, but those months are pollen months. May is about when you really feel like relaxing a bit, going outdoors and taking in the warm weather, and giving yourself a little time off. So that's what I'm about to do.

I haven't actually had a single day off of work since New Year's Day. No holidays or anything (we didn't take MLK or Pres. Day off). So needless to say, I'm ready for a break. It's been really busy at work since Christmas. We've been getting new business like crazy, and just had to hire on a new guy to take some of the edge off.

So this weekend, Hilary and I are heading down to Florida's St. George Island for a week of R&R with the in-laws. It's a real nice place...there's not really a lot to do, so you can actually spend all your time just RELAXING. Doing nothing if you want. Most vacation destinations are packed with activities. That's nice and all, but sometimes all you want to do is sit at the beach or pool, or maybe do a little sight seeing. Anything more than that can get pretty exhausting most of the time.

Maybe I'll find some buried treasure in the sand.

Some of you already know this, but for the rest of you, here's the announcement:

I'm trying out for the next American Idol.

Some of you think that's lame, and others of you just want to bask in my (potential) glory. Of course, there's always the chance that they'll decide to discontinue the series, or that people won't care about the show anymore....but as soon as they come to my town, I'm there. I figure I've got more musical knowledge than 1) 90% of the people who try out for the show, and 2) enough talent to get me pretty far in the show, depending on what folks vote for.

I'm pretty excited...just not sure what my audition piece is going to be yet. It isn't going to be one of SCAP's songs. I thought about a Jimmy Buffett song, since I've been singing those a lot lately, and people generally like that stuff.

If you have any recommendations, put it in the comment form, or e-mail me. And hey, to make it more like a contest, I'll do something special for you if I use your recommendation. Like, take you on the show if I make it, or buy you some ice cream.

Alright everyone, time for a little political entertainment! Grab some popcorn and watch the movie! (about 2 minutes long)

Takin' Care of Business...

Oh, but George W. Bush is such a failure.........right.

So last weekend, Hilary and I went to Six Flags with my sister and her fiance, as well as my parents and nephew Alexander. We got the tickets free from a car dealership, and it was a Christian music weekend. Jeremy Camp (I don't think I've ever heard him, and I missed his show too), Reliant K, and The Newsboys all performed. Reliant K has been one of my favorite Christian bands for the last 3 years because of their mix of punk harmony and honest lyrics (I know that sounds cliche, but it fits). One of my favorite songs by them went unperformed that night, but I was listening to it later and thought I'd reprint the lyrics:

Christians, we're all afriad of fire
We prefer to suck on pacifiers
Baby pacifists, we're throwing fits
We don't shake hands, we shake our fists
We're cannibals, we watch our brothers fall
We eat our own the bones and all
Finally fell asleep on the plane
To wake to see we're going down in flames

We're going down, down, down in flames
We're gonna drown, drown, drown insane
We see the problem and the risk, but nothing's solved we just say,
"Tisk tisk tisk" and "shame shame shame"

Christians, we mourn, the thorn is stuck
in the side of the body
Watch it self-destruct, the enemy is much ignored
When we fight this Christian civil war

Let me pause to clarify
'Cause I'm sure you're asking "Why?"
I stand before you, and proudly claim
To belong to what this song complains
I'm part of the problem, I confess
But I gotta get this off my chest
Let's extinguish the anguish for which we're to blame
And save the world from going down in flames

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

And whose birthday? Well, actually a couple of people...

Yesterday (April 12th) was my sister Maureen's birthday. She turned 21! Can ya believe it? Lil ol' Mo, all grown up.

And today (April 13th) is my brother Ryan's birthday. He's 25. You know what that means....cheaper car insurance.

I figure it's okay to tell everyone how old they are. People aren't self-conscious about their age until they get REALLY old...like age 35 or whatever...

So happy birthday to both of you, and enjoy every minute of it.

Good Friday

And They Crucified Him Mark 15:22-25 -- They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). 23 Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him . . . 25 It was the third hour when they crucified him. 1Cor. 15:1-3 -- Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, This is the King of the Jews John 19:19-22 -- Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write `The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews." 22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." Rom. 5:6-8 -- You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. His First Word on the Cross Luke 23:33-34 -- When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals-- one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Rom. 5:9-10 -- Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Casting Lots for the Seamless Robe John 19:23-24 -- When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 24 "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did. Rom. 3:23-26 -- for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus Blasphemed and Mocked by All Matt. 27:39-44 -- Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!" 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, `I am the Son of God.'" 44 In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. Luke 23:36-37 -- The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." Gal. 3:13 -- Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." His Second Word John 19:25-27 -- Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," 27 and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. 1Pet. 2:24 -- He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. His Third Word Luke 23:39-43 -- One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." 42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." 1Pet 3:18 -- For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. His Fourth Word Mark 15:33-36 -- At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 35 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, "Listen, he's calling Elijah." 36 One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down," he said. Col. 1:19-23 -- For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-- 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. His Fifth and Sixth Words John 19:28-30 -- Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." 1John 2:1-2 -- My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. His Seventh Word and His Death Luke 23:46 -- Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last. Heb. 2:14-15 -- Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Col. 2:13 -- When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. The Miraculous Signs Matt. 27:51-56 -- At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52 The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. 54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!" 55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons. Heb. 7:26-27 -- Such a high priest meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. Heb. 9:25-28 -- Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. They Pierce His Side John 19:31-37 -- Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken," 37 and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced." Eph. 1:7 -- In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 1Pet. 1:18-19 -- For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. The Burial John 19:38-42 -- Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. Matt. 27:60-66 -- He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. 62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, `After three days I will rise again.' 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first." 65 "Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how." 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. Gal. 2:20-21 -- I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

PALM SUNDAY

"When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, 'I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.' After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, ' Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes' And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.' They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. Also, a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, 'The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.' "
Luke 22:14-27

AWESOME.

Everyone needs to watch Saturday Night Live this Saturday, April 3rd...Donald Trump is hosting (should be interesting), but MORE IMPORTANTLY - Toots and the Maytals will be the musical guests! Man, if you don't know who they are, you should. Good old ska band, been around for YEARS, and true Jamaican ska at that.

In other news...

Hilary and I just about cried to have to watch Troy get fired on The Apprentice tonight. Man, that's really too bad, because I had been figuring on him winning since episode one. It was basically Troy vs. Kwame in the board room. The real deciding factor was that Troy didn't have any education beyond high school. Fair enough...in the real world, experience means a lot...a WHOLE lot, but people still get hired and fired based on standardized accreditations, so Kwame would realistically be the winner of the match, even if it wasn't Trump.

Okay, everyone have a good night, and get ready for the weekend!

Okay, I need everyone to listen very, very carefully...

JOhn KErry is a JOKE. The guy is no good. He's not the worst person on the planet, nor is he even close. However, he is not good presidential material.

But see, he's not really the bigger problem. The MUCH bigger problem is that people aren't voting FOR him. Most people are simply voting AGAINST G.W. Bush. Most Kerry fans don't care who Kerry is or isn't, nor do they care what he has or has not done. They just have this idea in their head that G.W. Bush has done more bad than good.

Thankfully, the numbers are in favor of smart people:
-Not only do the polls all show W in the lead over JoKe by some 8 percentage points, but now the elderly (let's consider them "voters" for the purpose of this discussion) have decided to back W as well. They realize that JoKe is not really going to be their best friend, and they know that he couldn't possibly care about their personal well being. Besides the elderly "voters" are the ones that JoKe wants to tax the most, because they tend to have money.
-Ralph Nader's poll numbers are increasing more and more each week. He stole Democrat votes in 2000, and saved us all from 4 years of Gore. Now he's all set to play hero again. Good for him. I disagree with most Green party politics, but I definitely think that a third party is necessary.

I will vote against John Kerry in November because I know him better than he knows himself. I'm not voting against him just because he's a Democrat, or just because he is John Kerry. The hatred for Bush is unfounded. The people who hate him most don't even know why exactly. Or they think they know, but all they know is a couple of sound bytes or information taken out of context. I don't even agree with 100% of what Bush has done, but he is a good man, and he is a good leader. He loves freedom and justice, and so do I. Who could possibly have anything in common with John Kerry? Even HE doesn't have anything in common with John Kerry.

I'm working on a Saturday?

Hope you're having a good time at HOME, Hilary. :)

Yeah, that is all I've got to say.

Alright, so right now I'm working on getting my posts archived by month (you can see that on the left side of the page here). Haven't figured it out just yet, but eventually it'll be working. Then, this page won't have so many posts on it. Won't that be nice?

Hope everyone's enjoying themselves. Keep on keepin' on...

Okay folks, here comes the obvious:

I haven't posted anything from my wedding on my website.

Now, although I've commented on it, and put a few words here and there, I realize that there isn't really much content other than that. Okay, so here's the deal. For the wedding video, I'm editing it myself, and I'm almost done. I'll actually have it on a DVD, with tons of video from other wedding events (shower, rehearsal dinner, some other stuff too) along with "special features." However, the ceremony (along with pre- and post-ceremony stuff) will be available ON THE WEB. I'm going to be streaming it using Windows Media Encoders, so you'll be able to watch it. It's even going to be optimized for dial-up users, so everyone can see it in beautiful full-frame glory. I'll probably have it done in a month.

For pictures, I've got quite a few scanned images, but as you can probably tell by visiting my picture page, I haven't put those pics up yet, nor have I put and pics up for much anything at this point. I guess it's been a pretty busy 9 months here since the wedding.

I know, I know...excuses, certainly, BUT....no more. It's all coming along soon here, so keep checking back.

If you don't want to check back, then I tell you what - e-mail me with your address and I'll send a big ol' e-mail out to let people know.

Okay, today's post is mostly about video editing (my career), so if you don't care about this stuff, just look at the pretty pictures here.

Adobe Premiere Pro is the best video editing software for the dollar. Period.

I know that anything from Avid is pretty much the pinnacle software for video editing (whereas, of course, Pinnacle software actually sucks). I just like Premiere for so many reasons. For starters, Avid is out of my range for now, and I don't need anything that extensive. However, compared with just about everything else out there, Premiere Pro wins. Apple's Final Cut Pro is only available on Mac computers, so I'm not interested. I've used Final Cut Pro (FCP) extensively, but it doesn't come close now. Sure, previous versions of Premiere were less than wonderful, but the previous version provided good competition for FCP. Still, FCP has been something of a standard for us mid-level professionals. In fact, it WAS a lot more user friendly compared to Premiere 6.5, but Premiere Pro (v7.0) has better rendering, better visual effects, and has some pretty amazing interaction with Adobe Photoshop. You can actually take a layered image in Photoshop, import it into the timeline in Premiere, and use the various layers as animation sequences. Obviously, no one else offers anything close to that. It's really great, since not every video editor is a graphic artist. With this capability, everyday joes like myself can create content that is above and beyond the abilities of other non-linear editors (NLEs) available.

Ulead sucks a whole lot. I can't believe some of the good reviews it gets, with its top-tier software claiming to be "professional"....it's not. I use it at work, and we all agree that adopting that platform has been a mistake. I've used Premiere on my home PC for a few years now, and until the recent 7.0/Pro version, it would have been suitable to my workplace, but maybe not an entirely superior NLE to the Ulead offering. Now...no questions asked. Hands down, Premiere wins.

I've been using a trial version of the new Pro/7.0 on my home PC, but I'm going to buy it real soon. I want the Pro video bundle, which comes with the brand-new After Effects (pro video effects...THE standard for this kind of stuff), the brand-new Photoshop, the brand-new Audition (audio editing and loop creation), the brand-new Encore DVD creator, and of course, Premiere Pro. It's a $1,500 package, but the combined price for buying all of those individual components would easily be $3,000 to $4,000. And hey, I need 'em all! There is an educational discount that brings the price for that package down to $800, but....well, I'm not in skool anymore. I've discovered, in fact, that the educational version is a FULL VERSION of all the software, the exact same package you'd pay $1,500 for otherwise (most educational versions are watered down along with the price, making it much-less-than-fully-functional). I gotta talk to my lil sis about getting that for me.

My friend Eric has also been using this software for the recent Overexposed Films production of "Teaching Marlow," and he has had some real fun with it. I'm using it to finish up my wedding video, and on a scale of 1-100, it gets a big-time 110. Naysayers, your day in the sun is ending.

I'm working late tonight, but that's alright,
I'd rather be here than in a fight,
And if it's all the same to you
I'll have that bottle of glue
and glue my eyes to the monitor on my desk.

It's been a long day, and I'm still working (although I'm on a "break" now, so I'm typing this real quick).

NOTICE the great and wonderful comment tool at the bottom of this and every post. Please use it.

SNOW!

 

That's right...a bonafide blizzard right here in Gwinnett County! Grab the bread and milk and keep the kids indoors, because this is Georgia and we don't have a clue what to do when this white junk starts falling from the sky.

Seriously, those of you not from these parts don't realize how everything shuts down WAAAAAY before it gets serious. Many people are not going to work today, but I am (that's me with a couple of my coworkers at work after our shoot this morning). It wasn't so bad. My wife has to drive north of here for work where it is MUCH worse...sheesh. We got a couple of inches in the span of an hour at about 4:30am this morning (I had to be in early so Hilary and I were already up).

Well, I hope everyone enjoys their SNOW DAY, and remember...don't eat the yellow snow.

Okay, so read this quote, and ask yourself why someone would say something like this:

"I'm not going to spend $9 just for a few laughs" -- CBS's Andy Rooney to Don Imus on why he won't see PASSION OF CHRIST.

Well, I understand it's a joke, of course, and it IS Andy Rooney saying it...just seems like someone is trying to take the wind out of someone else's good work just because they don't understand it.

Last Friday, Senator Zell Miller and Sean Hannity were signing copies of their new books down the street from where Hilary and I live, so we stopped by...

 

It was a lot of fun to hear them both talk, and get to meet both of them. Although I don't make a big deal out of it all the time, I'm a political conservative, and I've recently started listening more to what my conservative leaders have to say. Senator Miller has actually sort of stirred things up in the Democratic party with his recent speeches (and book) about the failure of the Democrats to do things right (Senator Miller is a Democrat himself, just not the typical leftist variety).

Anyways, it was good to meet both of them. I thanked Senator Miller on my parents behalf for making it possible for me to go to college virtually for free. He "invented" the HOPE Scholarship here in Georgia, which pays tuition and fees as long as you keep a 3.0 average.

SCAP had a practice this weekend in Athens at Nuci's Space. Had a pretty good time...we really needed the practice, and still need some more. Everyone's just real busy. But, it's a good start, and it was cool hanging out with the fellas. Hilary came along, but hung out with her friend Alice while the band practiced. Good times.

Alright, I don't think I really have anything else to say. It's been pretty busy here in Duluth since Christmas...get a little bit of a break, then get swamped, eh? Well, Hilary is just about done with her training (almost 6 months!) so she'll have a bit of a load off here soon. I'm enjoying my job still, good folks and all.

Okay, last thing....Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" comes out tomorrow, and everyone should go see it. Although with something like 3,000 screens sold out through the weekend, you might have to wait. Some churches have actually purchased the tickets for some theaters and then instructed the ticket takers to just let people in for free if they want to see it. Good luck finding those theaters and getting in. Hope everyone's doing well.

So real quick, here's something that I got in an e-mail...this is good. Just don't laugh so hard that milk comes out your nose, eh?


WHY IS IT THAT WE HAVE TO SPEAK ENGLISH?




An officer in the U.S. Naval reserve was attending a conference that included admirals from both the U.S. Navy and the French Navy. At a cocktail reception, he found himself in a small group that included personnel from both navies. The French admiral started complaining that whereas Europeans learned many languages, Americans learned only English. He then asked: "Why is it that we have to speak English in these conferences rather than you speak French?"



Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied: "Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you would not have to speak German."

The group became silent.

Been a while, eh?

Well, after my last post, I've been super busy. First off, my grandmother died (my dad's mom). It was pretty sad. I've known her my whole life, and lived only a couple miles away until 1990. Even then, I was only about a half-hour drive away. I can honestly say though, you never know what you've got til it's gone. It was even more sad because this past Monday was going to be her 75th birthday, and my grandfather was planning a party for this past Sunday with all the family, even flying my brother and his wife into town from Michigan. Well, the flight and travel plans were all bumped up for everyone to be at the funeral, and we were all able to spend time together as a family as well. But, I've gotten over it now (the funeral was a week ago) and life goes on for your's truely.

In addition to that, I've been absolutely slammed with work. We've had all kinds of business coming through the doors, and we had studio work all day long all last week. This week is somewhat slower, so that's nice...still, I've done the math, and I figure I have about 120 hours of work to do. I'll probably get it done a little quicker...either way, it'll still be over 2 weeks of solid work on my plate, on top of my regular work. I figure that I'll be back to regularly scheduled programming by early March, even if it means working a lot more hours.

I went and saw the new Lord of the Rings movie weekend before last. It was me, Hilary and Eric. Eric had the night off of work, and so he decided to spend his time with the world's most incredible couple. We went up to the theater at the Mall of Georgia, and when we went to get tickets, we found out that it was playing in the IMAX theather! Man, it was awesome. The movie was great, really astounding stuff...and the picture and sound were some of the best. So that was a pretty nice surprise. In retrospect, it would have been nice to do something else besides a movie when Eric was hanging out with us. Not much room for conversation or other stuff at the movies. We did go to TGI Friday's for dinner beforehand though...also good. I just was thinking that maybe we should have hung out somewhere else where we could all spend time together. Cest la vie....anyways, he left around 1:00am after we got back from the movie, since he had work the next morning in Athens.

By the way, not sure if I've mentioned it, but he's finalizing a movie called "Teaching Marlow" right now. All the production is done, and they're finishing up the editing now, so if you wanna catch up on what's going down, visit Overexposed Films. That's the website for his production group that is producing this bit of film wonder.

That'll do it for now. More to come...

Oh, and don't forget...vote for Bush in November.

DO THIS NOW

If you love America, click HERE.

Watch the whole thing and then click on the link below it (the link says "info" in somewhat small lettering).

Sometimes I guess we just need a reminder, and Memorial Day is too far away.

I miss my friends.

I don't really get to see them that much anymore because they're either too far away or too busy, or both. Even the ones nearby...well, it seems like everyone (including me) is always busy. Or conflict of schedules. Like, I had some major time off for a couple of weeks last month, but I didn't really get to see much of my friends.

On the other hand, I have seen a bunch of my family. Get to see them all the time it seems, so I should feel good about that.

But as I've heard and said many times, "it's not what you have, it's what you don't have." That's a pretty American way of putting it. And lately, I haven't had my friends around.

I give it 5 years before things calm down. Everyone's in college or starting jobs, so everyone has a really busy schedule right now. 5 years.

Okay, I just went to post this huge blog, and it disappeared. No clue on that one, but anyways, here's the gist of what I had typed:

-Hilary just had her birthday on December 28th. Send her a nice e-mail to let her know how special she really is.

-Holiday season is over and I'm back in the full swing of the working world. Good to hear all my coworkers had a nice holiday.

-I currently have a strange feeling that I'm forgetting something. No, not about the missing blog, but I actually MENTIONED the strange feeling in the missing blog. I don't know what's up, but usually when I have the feeling that I've forgotten something, I have forgotten something. I could be wrong, but I haven't been before. Hopefully I'll figure this out before anything happens (if it will happen at all). I'm just as confused as you are.